Academic Innovation Blog

The New Quiz Creation/Edit Experience

A new create and edit experience for Quizzing is coming in the June 23^rd update of Falcon Online. Here is an early preview of this update so that you can review, prepare, and raise any questions you may have. When you access the quiz creation/edit screen you will see a message about the new experience where you can choose to leave it on or turn it off, as seen in this screenshot. I recommend that you leave it on as this will eventually become the default view, date to be determined. If you choose to turn it off, you will be asked to provide a reason.

Once you select an option, this panel will collapse, but you can use the arrow at the top right of the quiz edit screen to re-open it and adjust your selection.

Old vs New

The current quiz creation workflow uses a tabbed interface with each tab providing access to various settings and properties.

The new experience provides a screen just like the current Assignment creation screen with a main screen on the left and expandable accordion panels on the right.

1. Enter a quiz name (required).
2. The Grade Out Of  will not be available until you add questions to the quiz or add the quiz to the gradebook.
   1. If the quiz is Not in Grade Book, Grade Out Of reflects the total points of the questions and the Grade out Of field is not editable.
   2. If the quiz is In Grade Book, Grade Out Of is the maximum points of the associated grade item in the Grades tool. In this case the Grade Out Of field will be editable.
3. Choose whether to include the quiz in the gradebook. You can create a new grade item or associate it with a pre-existing grade item.
4. You can include a due date. The due date will automatically be added to the course calendar. NOTE: Start and End dates are set on the Availability Dates & Conditions accordion panel on the right.
5. You can include a description.
6. The Add Existing button allows you to import questions from the question library, learning object repository (LOR), or from a file.
7. The Create New button allows you to create new questions, sections, or question pools. NOTE: New questions created this way are only available in this specific quiz. It is highly recommended that you first create your questions in the question library and import them to a quiz.
8. Once you add question, these three items will appear.
   1. The Add dropdown combines the functionality of the Add Existing and Create New buttons. Note that when a question is selected this option is disabled.
   2. The Move To dropdown is only active if you have at least one question selected. You can then move the selected question(s) to the top or bottom of the quiz or if you have created sections, you can move them to a selected section.
   3. The More Actions dropdown is also only active when you have one or more questions selected. This option allows to delete, set points, publish to the LOR, make mandatory, or bonus.
9. You can also Preview the quiz.
10. The expandable accordion panels on the right allow you to set other options as show below. In the collapsed view, you see a summary of the current setting for that pane. To change the settings, select the title of the accordion panel to expand it.
11. The main screen and the side panels can scroll vertically independent of each other. As you add questions or expand the panels you may see a dark gray scroll bar appear just to the right of each section. You can also adjust the width of each section by placing your cursor over this light bluish gray bar until it turns to a double headed arrow. Then click and hold to drag to the right or left.
12. Lastly, remember to use the save option at the bottom of the screen to save the quiz. You can also toggle the visibility.

Expandable Accordion Panels

The four accordion panels on the right are initially collapsed showing a summary of the current settings. Click the title of a panel to expand it and edit the settings.

Availability Dates & Conditions Accordion Panel

1. Add Start and End date. NOTE: In this initial release, you can't add these availability dates to the calendar. This capability will be added in a later update. In the meantime, to add them to the calendar, you can either temporarily turn off the new experience and add them using the old screens or use the Manage Dates tool.
2. Create a new or add a current release condition (opens a popup screen).
3. Add special access (opens a popup screen).
4. Create a quiz password.
5. Set up restriction based on a range of IP addresses (opens a popup screen).

Timing & Display Accordion Panel

1. Set the timing requirements (opens a popup screen).
2. Set the paging options. You can set one question per page or set up paging based on quiz sections. If you are editing a quiz that was created using the old creation experience, you will also see the option to use legacy paging. IMPORTANT NOTE: In the current experience, you can specify the number of questions per page. In the new experience, you have to create sections in the quiz and then choose the option to set the page break based on sections.
3. Decide if you want to shuffle the quiz questions and sections.
4. Set the display options. The disable email option will be checked by default.
5. Set up a header and footer (opens a popup screen). Note: in the old creation screen you had to turn on the visibility for headers and footer, but in this new experience, they are automatically visible once you create them.

Attempts & Completion Accordion Panel

1. Set how many attempts are allowed and how the grade will be calculated (opens a popup screen).
2. Create a category or choose a pre-existing category for the quiz. Categories provide an organizational structure on the quiz listing page.
3. Enter you email address if you wish to receive and email notification for a quiz submission.
4. Set the completion requirements. A student can be marked complete after submitting the quiz or you can set a required passing grade.

Evaluation & Feedback Accordion Panel

1. Set whether to auto-publish the results upon submission and whether to publish the score to the gradebook. These options will be checked by default.
2. Choose what to display to the student upon submission. You can display the grade and the dropdown allows to choose to display:
   1. No Questions
   2. Incorrect question only, with correct answers
   3. Incorrect question only, without correct answers
   4. All questions, with correct answers
   5. All questions, without correct answers
3. You can customize the results screen displayed to students upon submission (opens a popup screen).
4. You can also associate learning outcomes to the quiz (opens a popup screen).

Video Tutorial

Here is a video tutorial showing how to use the new quiz creation/edit experience. NOTE: When you start the video, use the full screen box icon in the lower right of the video  or press "f" on your keyboard to open the video in full screen mode. Press "f" or "Esc" on your keyboard to exit full screen mode.

Creating a Quiz in the New Create Experience Direct Link (9:48)

Bill Harrison
Director, IT - Instructional Resources and Training
bill.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

Hello, I’m Kathryn Allman, an American Sign Language faculty member here at DSC.  I had the opportunity to serve as your Faculty Fellow in Innovation during the Fall of 2021 – a joint effort between the Division of Online Studies, Instructional Resources, and my department designed to make online courses more engaging and easier to navigate for the students.

During my fellowship, I chose to revise ASL2140 (American Sign Language I), an online course. My goals for this program were as follows:

1. Organize and update online content in the Course Curriculum modules.
2. Design activities and content to be more logical and intuitive for students.
3. Edit and re-record video content with collaboration from Instructional Resources.
4. Make changes/corrections to create accessible content for all learners.

I accomplished these goals through a combination of rearranging and streamlining the existing content making it more intuitive to navigate; and creating new interactive content and assignments with tools available in Falcon Online, such as Bongo Video Assignment and H5P.

You can view some of the example activities we created for students in the following video clip, taken from my presentation during the Spring 2022 Adjunct Support Day:

Students’ Response to these Changes

I employed these changes in a full term ASL I section in the Spring ‘22. A total of 23 H5P interactive assignments were created for online coursework. There were 18 students enrolled in this section, and participation levels on these assignments ranged from 83% to 100% (M=95.41%, STD=4.82%) with nine assignments having full participation.  To encourage skill practice and persistence, the assignments were graded for completion and created to scaffold comprehension and language skills before high-stakes tests.  The feedback provided from these H5P and video assignments allowed students to evaluate their progress more regularly, and consequently, correct errors and target weaknesses.

My Assessment of this Experience

These course revisions look very promising for retention and persistence due to the increased focus on interactivity. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to form a relationship with the FIC and Instructional Design team members.  Their expertise and encouragement were very impactful to this course.  If you are teaching an online course and want to explore improvements, I encourage you to meet with your department and the Division of Online Studies to discuss whether future participation in this Fellowship is right for you. 

Kathryn Allman, MS NIC
Assistant Professor
American Sign Language
Kathryn.Allman@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3541

Gradebook Settings

During the Spring 2022 semester, the Division of Online Studies surveyed the eMentor committee to explore a recommendation to alter two default settings in the Falcon Online gradebook. The options are ‘automatically release final grades’ and ‘drop ungraded items’. There was an abundance of valuable information and thoughtful dialogue within the eMentor committee before we released the survey for a response. The majority of eMentor Committee members selected "yes" to update these default grade book options to 'Automatically release final grade’ and ‘Drop ungraded items’ as the new default settings for those limited areas within the grade book. Thirty-three eMentors responded to the survey, with 55% selecting "Yes," 36% selecting "No," and 9% selecting "Other," and provided additional context to their response. 

Prior Default Gradebook Settings 

Previously, the Grade Calculation option was set to ‘treat ungraded items as 0’. Faculty members did not have to enter a 0 for students that did not do an assignment; thus, ending any oversight and ensuring they scored all students on the same overall points. Conversely, faculty members must add the 0 for students that did not do an assignment to ensure every student is being evaluated on the same overall points total, and they are aware of their current standing. However, the connotation is students are at a constant deficit throughout the semester.

New Default Gradebook Settings 

The benefit of selecting ‘Drop ungraded items’ opposes the earlier mindset by placing the students in a position of strength from the outset. The two most powerful predictors of persistence for DSC students are related to the LMS grade book. The rationale behind this recommendation is to allow students to view their current grades and better understand their ongoing success in their classes. Dropping ungraded items avoids the student perception of starting with a deficit overall grade. 

Dr. Taryn Brown, a faculty member at the Mori Hosseini College of Hospitality & Culinary Management, made a video that she shared with her fellow instructors after an Assessment Day meeting, which illustrates the process and highlights the benefits to her students after opting to 'drop ungraded items'. She has graciously allowed us to share this with the DSC community at large. Clearly, Dr. Brown and the students prefer this gradebook option because it is transparent and helps to keep the students on track!

Final Grades Automatically Released

Next, let’s examine the other switch to the default gradebook settings. The Final Grade Release section has a choice to ‘Automatically release final grade’. The intent is for students to be informed of the ongoing status in the course.

As this choice is enabled, “… the system automatically marks the final grade as released. The system does this at the time the final grade is saved for the user. If this option is not checked, the instructor must manually release users’ final grades.” This process will publish your grades and feedback immediately so it's one less manual task for you as the instructor and one more tool for students to track their up-to-date progress.

Fortunately, a ready step is available to know if the final grades are released. If the gradebook is set up with a Final Calculated Grade choice and not an Adjusted Final Grade, there will be an open eye after the student’s name. Choosing an Adjusted Final Grade will not present this option.  

Feedback & Ongoing Communication

The new default is for these two specific settings in the Falcon Online gradebook, based on instructor feedback. Instructors can change their settings to match their preferred display options as before. In fact, if the course is copied and all components are selected, the gradebook settings stay the same. We always want our instructors to be aware of changes within Falcon Online. So, please subscribe to our blog to ensure you are current on matters related to Online Studies.

Aaron Sunday
Instructional Designer, Division of Online Studies
aaron.sunday@daytonastate.edu | 386-506-3209
Online Studies | Faculty Innovation Center (FIC)